The headline on Dead’s official website reads: “Dead – Bags of Fuck Since 1990.” I have no idea how this band has stayed off my radar for 20 years, but better late than never. A trio of perverse and demented gore grinders hailing from Nuremberg, Dead’s brand of sloppy crust will should appeal to fans of Pungent Stench and older Autopsy, but even that might be a stretch. Their latest release HARDNAKED…BUT DEAD! purports the continuation of the band’s musical depravity, and while I’m unfamiliar with the band’s back catalog, I’ll attest that this is one nasty platter of pornogrind.

With titles like “Liquor Store Goddess,” “Tits,” and “Perfumes of Doom” (the latter an ode to cutting the cheese), you pretty much know what to expect - under produced, guttural vocals, blast beats, low tuned grindy guitars, and more filth than Oscar the Grouch’s summer home. If that’s your thing, you’ll love HARDNAKED…BUT DEAD! Otherwise, probably not so much…At face value, the overall presentation of the tunes is enjoyable enough, particularly when the band shifts tempos, as in the slow dirge of the title track or “Possessed Soldiers of Luv.” Even “A Beer” entertains some fun sleaze rock swagger. Otherwise, things tend to blur and get lost a bit. Whereas the aforementioned granddaddies of sicko grind Pungent Stench applied a variety of musical tomes to their perverse arsenal, Dead end up being a bit of a one trick pony.

There’s not much else to say about HARDNAKED…BUT DEAD! Dead is the kind of band that appeals to a pretty niche audience, but that audience will eat it up (and then regurgitate it, and then eat it again). Check it out if you think you’ve got the stones for it. HARDNAKED…BUT DEAD! is available now through F.D.A. Rekotz.